New Music Releases For March 16, Including Drive-By Truckers and The White Stripes

We've already gone over some of today's DVD releases, but in need of a pick-me-up for your iPod, too? The pickings are slim this week, but here's the 411 on the buzziest albums.

Live and Loud: To coincide with the release of their documentary Under Great White Northern Lights, The White Stripes are releasing an album of songs from the film, which they played across Canada during a 2007 tour. The result is an in-your-face, raucous live mix with Jack White wailing on the mic. I especially enjoy his cries of desperation on concert favorite "Jolene" and the back-to-back performances of "We Are Going to Be Friends" and "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself". The album makes you feel like you're there for the head-banging, but more so, it makes me want to catch the band (and the doc) stat so I can actually see Jack shred along on the guitar, bloody fingers and all.

Country that kills: Drive-By Truckers return with their new album, The Big To-Do, their first under Dave Matthews's ATO label. They're still referencing their usual themes of hard livin' Southern types with a solid mix of rock and country, as they sing about a small-town sex worker on "Birthday Boy" or a closed-up club on "After the Scene Dies." Oh, and in classic Drive-By style, there's murder to be had on "The Wig He Made Her Wear," where a wife kills her preacher husband, or "Drag the Lake Charlie." If corpses really aren't your thing, try the more sensitive "You Got Another," a great ballad about love gone amiss.